Take a Bow
by angel123death
Summary: Demyx just admitted to the whole world that he's been cheating on Zexion. Will Zexion forgive and forget, will he fall into darkness, or will Axel save him? Why is Marluxia even in this story? AkuZeku near the end and a little bit of Zemyx in flashbacks.


Take a Bow

Disclaimer: I do not own any KH characters or the song "Take a Bow". All I own is a copy of the KH 358/2 Days, and I'm stuck in Agrabah…

Zexion grinned when Demyx's finishing number was ending. Demyx Rivers was the lead singer in a band called _Heartless Nobodies_ along with Axel Sinclair as the drummer, Marluxia Rose on bass, and Roxas Strife on the keyboard. They had been dating for about three years now, ever since Demyx accidently spilled coffee on Zexion, causing him to chuck a seven hundred paged book at the singer. The day that happened was the day when the band got their big break, Zexion was the son of the band's manager, he was having one of his rare day-offs, being that he was a model, song writer, and had a literature major.

Today was Roxas' birthday and Zexion wanted to go their concert to wish him a happy birthday. After all, they had been best friends since kindergarten at Ansem Academy. So he sneaked off to the concert with a black hoodie, worn out jeans, and a bleach blond wig, making him look like a normal teenager. He didn't want get mobbed during the concert and ruin it for the band; he also wanted to surprise his boyfriend and the others.

The crowd started to cheer their heads off as the last note of their song faded away into the night, but Demyx hushed them to make an announcement. "As you all know that the last song we just preformed was about true love. About how you know that the one is really _the one_," the crowd started to cheer once more and Zexion started to blush. "Hold on, I'm not done yet. Anyways, you all know where I'm going with this. He's the most amazing person in the world, we've been dating for a while now and he's absolutely adorable. He's right here right now."

At that moment Zexion knew that his secret relationship with Demyx was going to be revealed and that it would be all over the papers the next day, but he didn't care, just as long as he was with Demyx. "Everybody, I have something to say to that person," Zexion started to get out of his seat when Demyx turned around, "Roxas, I'm in love with you. Always was, and always will. Baby, I love you. You're the one." He said, leaning in to kiss him.

At this point, Zexion's world began to shatter. _What…?_ People around him started to whisper about what just happened, not helping his state of mind. "I knew it! No wonder Demyx was seen with Roxas, snogging on their last tour! I even heard that they both came out of a hotel together one night with their clothes all messed up and happy drunken faces, when their band hotel had been across the city!" Zexion cringed at this, his heart started to beat faster, it felt like it was going to pop out of his chest. It suddenly started to get hot, everything was swaying and he felt like he was going to throw up. What had he done wrong? Then it dawned on him, it wasn't him, it was Demyx! But, why did it hurt so much?

The crowd started to cheer once more, when Zexion stood up on his chair and did a very loud and slow clap, silencing the crowd and drawing attention to him. He slowly took off his hood and wig with trembling hands. Why did Demyx have to do this to him? Why didn't he see the signs? Demyx had obviously been getting closer to Roxas than he was to him. "How about a round of applause? A standing ovation!" He said as tears began to roll down his cheeks. Gasps were heard and so were whispers about why he was there.

He started to leave the audience when he heard Demyx, "Zexion?! I-I'm- -" He didn't wait to hear the last part, it hurt so much. So he ran away from the crowd, tears rushing from his eyes. He narrowly escaped, tears blurring his vision, he knew Demyx or Axel had to be chasing him. Zexion jumped into the bushes to hide and calm his nerves, waiting for whoever was chasing him to run pass. He didn't want to talk to Demyx right now, not after what he just did, not after shattering his heart.

"Zexion, where are you?!" a voice yelled out, making him jump. It was Axel Sinclair.

"I-I –hic- I'm over here…" Zexion replied from the bushes, poking his head out. Axel rushed over to him, wrapping his arms around the smaller teen. As the latter snuggled into his chest and cried his eyes out, Axel began to comfort him, slowly rubbing his back. He was the only one Zexion could really open up to, the one who he could really trust besides Demyx. Axel was Zexion's neighbor when they were younger; the day when they became best friends was the day when he set Marluxia's flower garden on fire for taking Zexion's notebook. They've been inseparable since. "Where's Demyx…?" Zexion managed to choke out.

"He's still over there, trying to sort everything out. You cause such an uproar little buddy. You do know that this is going to be all over the papers tomorrow, right?" the pyro asked as he petted Zexion's head.

"… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to… I just- just…" the smaller mumbled into his chest.

"Hey, it's alright. It wasn't your fault, Zeku. This wasn't your fault at all…" he said as he lifted Zexion's head to meet his eyes, giving him a sympathetic smile. Their faces just mere inches apart, both breathing each other's air. He wanted the pain to go away, to simply disappear. He wanted to forget everything and start over. Both of them forgot about their surroundings as they leaned in.

"That was AWESOME!! Who knew that Demyx was a two-timing person? I mean, that must have really hurt Zexion. Proclaiming his love in front of Zexion and to the world? Man that must suck…"

"Yeah, but even I wouldn't be able to choose between those two either!" that made Zexion realize what he was doing and snap his head away. The pain was back and it became excruciating, tears started to well up in his eyes again.

"Zex, what's wrong?"

"Just take me home, Axel… I want to go home…" Zexion replied, voice barely above a whisper as he stood up and put his hood back on. Axel nodded as he too stood up and escorted the model to his motorcycle.

As Zexion put on his helmet, Demyx came outside with Roxas. Their eyes met, lilac clashed with cyan. His heart started to beat fast once more and he felt as if he was going to throw up if he stayed there any longer. He snapped his head away and demanded Axel to drive, _I want to leave…_ "Zexion, wait up! Would you mind explaining to me what the heck that was back there?! You know how much that's going to cost us, do you?!" Zexion stiffened, so that's all he cared about?

"Drive…"

"Come on Zexy. Let's both act like our age and settle this like men."

"GO!" he screamed out, tears flowing down his face. With that, Axel pushed forward, making them speed away. Zexion risked to take a glance behind him, but regretted his decision. There stood Demyx staring at them while as Roxas clung onto him.

"He doesn't deserve you, Zeku." The drummer finally said when they reached their destination; it was almost midnight when they got there. "You deserve better than him. _WAY_ better than him. I'll make him pay, I swear." He said voice laced with anger as his fists tightened, but released when he felt Zexion tighten his grip around his waist and shook his head. The model took off his helmet and started walking toward the front door when he felt a hand wrap around his wrist. "Hey, don't beat yourself up for this. It's not your fault, it was never your fault," he said as he pulled Zexion into a hug. "If you need anybody to talk to, you'll always have me. Got it memorized?"

"Thank you, Axel." he replied as he returned the hug. When Axel left, Zexion went up to his house and took the spare key from the secret compartment behind the doorbell. Hopefully Demyx wouldn't be coming home tonight; he just couldn't handle him right now.

Zexion took a shower as soon as he got inside, wanting to get rid of the disgusting feeling of dried, moist, and sticky tears. Taking a shower always cleared his mind, giving him the refreshing feeling of a new start, but today was different. As he let the usually soothing stream of water run down his body, thoughts of Demyx came into his mind. A chain of memories flooded into his head, starting from when they first met.

_**FLASHBACK**_

"_Zexion, meet the__ Heartless Nobodies__. They are the band that I've been telling you about; I noticed that most of these people are acquaintances of yours." Zexion's father said as he gestured to the group of teens who stood before him. The model looked up from his book to see whatever his father had been talking about. Honestly, he told his father countless times, he wasn't interested in the music business. He smiled when he saw his friends waved at him, but stopped at the taller blonde holding a Starbucks coffee cup. Their eyes locked together, both of them unblinking for what seemed like ten minutes, lost in each other's eyes. "Ah, I see you've met Demyx. He's going to be the lead singer of the band, he has an amazing voice. I found him singing and playing his guitar near the park fountain two weeks ago, what an angel. Demyx, this is my son Zexion."_

"_Nice to meet you! I hope we can become great friends!"Demyx yelled out._

_Zexion raised an eyebrow as he adjusted his glasses, 'What energy… We've only just met…' Crossing his legs as he leaned back against the chair, he stuck his arm out for them to shake. "Likewise."_

_Demyx quickly reached out to shake his hand, but used the wrong hand. He accidently let go of his coffee cup, causing it to fly out towards Zexion, its contents spilling. The latter looked up to see what was taking the blonde such a long time, only to see a cup flying towards him. His first reaction was to throw his book at the cup to make it stop from hitting him, but his reaction was too late. Zexion missed the cup, making it hit Demyx dead center on the forehead as the steaming hot coffee poured all over his head._

_Zexion blinked, unaware of what happened, and he felt a warm liquid sliding down his head as he tried to process everything. "Cover your eyes. The pain will kick in soon." Axel commanded as he threw Zexion over his shoulder and ran to the nearest bathroom. The younger did as he was told and covered them, feeling a sharp stab of pain as he touched his face._

_He looked behind Axel through his fingers to see what was happening, only to see Marluxia running behind him. "Turn right, Axel. There is a cafeteria over there, hopefully they have a sink." Suddenly, Zexion's face started to hurt a lot. It felt like his flesh was burning off his face. He started to scream his lungs out when they had reached the lunchroom._

_Axel gently put the smaller on the kitchen counter as he turned the faucet on ice cold, grabbing the shower nozzle as he tried removing Zexion's hands from his face. "Move your hands, Muffin. This'll only hurt a little bit."_

"_Whatever! This hurts like hell, nothing else can hurt me this badly!! You gigantic idiot, hurry up and spray me!!" He screamed out at Axel._

_The pryo grabbed both of Zexion's wrists as he sprayed the water all over his coffee covered face. An agonizing shriek pierced the air as the water his Zexion's face, making it echo throughout the whole building. "See? I told you it'll hurt, now don't be such a baby. The pain will go away in a little bit and then your whole face will just go numb. Next time listen to me, got it memorized?" Axel said teasingly as he sprayed Zexion's hair to get the coffee off. Soon enough, the pain went away and the numbing feeling began, though it still hurt when he touched his face. "Thank goodness you wore glasses, or else you would have gone blind."_

"_Are we done yet?" Zexion asked as Axel tried drying the model's hair with a paper towel, not wanting any traces of coffee inside his hair._

"_I'm afraid not, well, not until I take a look at you." Marluxia answered as he stepped closer to Zexion. Marluxia had a part time as a young doctor due to his parents being chiefs of medicine, giving him the knowledge of the human body. "Axel, come here for a moment." He said, beckoning the drummer over to him. When both of them were in front of Zexion, both of their faces went grim, making their bangs cover their eyes. "Zexion, we have some news for you…" Marluxia started off._

"_W-what? Is there something wrong?" the smallest of the three panicked. If something happened to his face, his modeling career would go down the toilet._

"_Muffin, I don't know how to say this, but…" this time it was Axel. Zexion was now about to have a panic attack, Axel never used "Muffin" unless it was a serious matter like a couple minutes ago when he was told to brace himself._

"_Get on with it! I want to face the facts, I want the truth!!"_

"_Well," both of them said in unison, "you're GEORGOUS!!" they shouted, almost giving him a heart attack._

_As Zexion tried to slow his heart beat, he asked, "How did you guys do that?"_

"_It's a redhead connection. Not that you will ever understand, Zeku."_

"_That's weird, considering that you have fruity pink hair, Marluxia." Zexion mumbled, still angry about what they did to him._

"_Well, excuse you for being jealous of my perfect hair, you slate haired emo." Marluxia retorted._

"_Whatever, fruit cup." Zexion said as he pouted and crossed both of his arms over his chest. It was always like this between these two, they fought over nothing. The only result after a fight was Zexion becoming childish after losing. _

"_Demyx, get back over here!! What if you have a concussion?!" Roxas yelled out in the hallway, making the three look at the door connecting to it. Suddenly, Demyx burst into the room, panting heavily. Zexion saw his chance to get revenge on that dimwitted blonde who almost made him blind, so he threw the nearest thing to him, hoping it was a knife. Unfortunately, life never really favored him. A spoon flew through the air and hit Demyx straight on his forehead, exactly where a seven hundred paged book hit him dead-on a few minutes ago._

"_Ow…" Demyx whined, touching the spot where the spoon hit him. "Nice aim, but please stop hitting me."_

"_So much for first impressions…" Zexion mumbled under his breath._

"_I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that to you, the coffee just slipped! Tell you what; I'll make it up to you!"_

"_Oh, really now? And how are you going to repay me, Blondie?" he scoffed, not noticing the singer walking over to him._

"_How about I take you on the best date you will ever have?" Demyx said before he grabbed Zexion's face and kissed him, not waiting for an answer._

_**END OF FLASHBACK**_

Zexion smiled at that memory, it was one of his happiest moments in life. As he got out of the shower, he noticed that he couldn't feel the pain anymore; actually, he couldn't feel anything at all. He ignored the numbness as he went through the house, glancing at the walls full of pictures of him and Demyx.

After a while, Zexion began to worry. Why couldn't he feel? He grabbed a few albums of him and Demyx and thumbed through it, just to get a reaction, anything at all. It was freaking him out; nothing could trigger any emotion out of him. Zexion ran to the kitchen and threw open the drawer full of knives, grabbing one, he positioned it on his arm. "Anything will do…" Zexion whispered, bracing himself as he got ready to cut himself. He let the blade slice through his skin, but just enough for him to feel the pain. He let out a whimper as the pain kicked into his system, it hurt, but it was better than before.

Days passed by since that whole fiasco, but Demyx never came. Everyday seemed like hell to Zexion, the numbness always came back and the only way to make it disappear was the blade. He had become a mess. Dark bags had appeared under his eyes due to the lack of sleep and his ribcage had become visible. Nightmares of that day at the concert haunted him during the night, making him lose his appetite. His arms were covered with the scars from the knife, though he cleaned them every day to avoid infection.

He wrapped his arms up to stop the bleeding every time he would cut, not wanting to see the blood nor his old scars. Every time he caught a glimpse of those scars, tears would fall because of the shame and disgust he felt towards himself. Every scar marked each day Demyx officially stopped loving him. It gave him another reason to hate himself.

Loneliness was about to rip apart his soul when Axel burst through the front door. With one glance at Zexion, Axel commanded that he go change. "We're going out, whether you like it or not. Tomorrow is the Music Choice Awards and you have to host, we need to get you cleaned up." He did as he was told; there was no point in arguing with Axel after all. The model was careful to hide his arms from the drummer, no point in worrying everyone around him.

Axel had decided that they would use his red sports car that day to make room for the shopping bags. They practically bought everything inside the mall, just for Zexion. "You know, everyone's worried about you. You haven't been out in days, and when I finally see you, you're a zombie." Axel said as they drove down the road, only to receive silence as a reply. "We're here." He said as the car pulled to a stop. They were at a cliff that over looked the sea, the exact same one that Zexion and Demyx went to years ago.

"Axel, I want to leave…" Zexion whispered as he looked at the ocean. Demyx was like the ocean, going at his own pace as he flowed through life and never to be tamed.

Axel's cell phone rang, snapping Zexion out of his depressing thoughts. "I need to take this, it's Marluxia. While I talk to him, you go clear your mind." He said as he went back to the car. Zexion gulped as he neared the cliff, memories going through his head once more. There was one memory that he remembered so vividly, so clearly, he could see it happening.

_**FLASHBACK**_

"_Come on Zexy! It'll be fun, I promise." Demyx said as he pulled the smaller near the cliff._

"_D-Demyx, I don't think this is safe at all. And even if it is, I can't swim at all." Zexion said hesitantly. He'd never jumped off anything bigger that the step ladder that they had in the local library, let alone an eighty-nine foot cliff._

"_You'll be fine, I'm here after all." The singer said as their fingers intertwined. "You ready?" He nodded in response, wanting to get it over with. "One… Two… THREE!!!" Demyx yelled out as both of them jumped over the edge. Zexion tightened his grip on Demyx as they fell through the air. When they hit the water, both of them came up to the surface, with Zexion still holding on to Demyx._

"_That was fun!" He yelled out as they both floated in the water. "Demyx?"_

"_Yeah, Zexion?"_

"_Thank you, for showing me this." Zexion said as he nuzzled his head to the crook of Demyx's neck. "I love you."_

"_And I you, Zexy." Demyx replied, pulling them into a kiss. It was the first time they had ever spoken about what they felt for each other, and they were glad they did._

_**FLASHBACK END**_

"Demyx…" Zexion whispered as he started walking towards the edge, breaking into a sprint mid-step. _I miss you Demyx, I want to be with you… And the only way is to become one with the ocean!_ He thought as he subconsciously jumped over the edge.

Axel was still talking to Marluxia when he checked on Zexion. "He's fine Mar. I'm keeping an eye on him I swear…" he was getting annoyed with Marluxia's constant nagging, "what's he doing? Oh, he's walking towards the cliff… and now he's running." Axel told Marluxia before taking a double take, "Wait, running? Zexion…?" he called out, putting a hand over the speaker, confused by the younger's actions. When he saw the young model jump over, he quickly said into the receiver, "I'm going to have to call you back, Mar." Tossing his cell phone somewhere and quickly ripped off his jacket, he went after him. "ZEXION!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

That made Zexion snap out of his reverie, making him realize what was happening. He looked above him, there was Axel reaching out to catch him. "Axel…" he said as he too reached out his hand. Axel managed to grab Zexion's hand and pulled him into a hug as they splashed into the water.

As Axel carried Zexion to shore, both dripping wet, Zexion's bandages unraveled, revealing his scars. Zexion gasped as he tried to hide them once more, but Axel had already seen them. He set Zexion down carefully as he grabbed both of his wrists and pushed up the sleeves to show the remaining scars. "I-I'm sorry… I just felt very numb sometimes, as though I were already dead. I didn't like the feeling, but nothing else worked…" he confessed as tears fell, "I feel so stupid and ashamed."

The pyro kissed every single scar Zexion had on both arms, as if that would have made the pain go away. It still hurt a little bit, but with every kiss that was placed, a burden felt like it was lifted off his shoulders. He kept kissing until he kissed the tears away from Zexion's cheeks, making him blush a deep crimson. "Better, now?" he asked as their foreheads met. Zexion nodded in response, he was too embarrassed to speak. "Good."

"Axel…?" Zexion asked after a while, "I'm sorry I never realized your feelings… I think you're the one that I deserve."

"Hey, I've told you this before; it's not your fault. Listen to me next time, or else I'm going to have to repeat that over and over again." Axel said with a smile.

"I love you…" Zexion said as he pulled Axel down for a kiss. It felt awkward at first, but as they got comfortable with the feeling it turned magical.

"I love you too, Zexion. You better get that memorized until the end of time." He teased before getting pulled into another kiss.

"… And the award goes to _Heartless Nobodies_! Congratulations, guys on the best original music!" Zexion said as he handed Demyx the award.

"Thank you, Zexion. And nice tattoo you got there." Demyx pointed out the monarch butterfly design on Zexion's arms. Axel had drawn them to hide the multiple scars on his wrists, it was last minute, but it came out beautifully.

"Thank you." Zexion replied, as he touched one of his scars. "Oh, we have one more award! And this one is special; it goes out to a friend of mine. The nominees are, Axel, Roxas, Marluxia, and Demyx. Come back up here you guys!!" He had been waiting for this all day. Finally, this was his only chance to do it. "And the award for the best liar goes to you!" he said pointing at Demyx, "For making believe that you could be faithful to me, let's hear your speech out! You put on quite a show, really had me going. Now it's time to go, curtain's finally closing. That was quite a show, very entertaining. But it's over now, go on and take a bow, because it's over now." With that he walked away from the stage, hand-in-hand with Axel as the audience laughed at the blonde. _Take a bow, Demyx._


End file.
